On Eagle's Wings
On Eagle’s Wings
From the 2014 Archive
He poised, paused, watched
And kept his eye on death defeated,
The clawed marks on his side,
A reminder to his young
To take heed and learn from him.
His wings aloft, unfurled, resplendent,
His light the Lamp of Life
Offering comfort to his charges below
Who only a man did they see, young, a warrior
Who had guided them through
The Steep Pass
Amidst the storm of strife and battle,
Who had no vision or spectacle
of Eagle's Wings,
Yet knew by some hitherto unknown sense
That some Supernatural Event
Had overseen them...
3 July 2024
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023
Written 3 March 2014
Afterword
Picture an angelic being, deep, mystical, blackened wings, long hair, and peering at you as he rests, momentarily, upon the rocky outcrop, pondering you, weighing you up before alighting… a lantern in his other hand casting a hue, a lantern that represents light overcoming darkness, a light into your soul… a vision of our conscience.
Do you really mean to…?
The poem is written on the theme of that most problematic of new testament scriptures:
guard your actions, and with whom you speak,
for men have entertained angels without knowing
That is only men writing?
Perhaps.
I will leave it to the reader to look up the text if moved to do so.
Yet, in that text, is a hint, it seems to me,
that I will never cease to exist,
that there are a thousand dimensions,
and more besides,
stretching out either side of me and all around me,
above and below me,
yet all at eye level and seemingly
in perfect coexistence.
© 2014 Ian Bradley Marshall
Writing by spontaneous inspiration from Art brings enormous pleasure. It provides the means to upturn entrenched attitudes. In this case, the entrenched attitude was that of friends who, for whatever reason - back in 2014 - presumed that black means sinister, and black wings denote evil, and thus satanic.
Yet,
we will see beauty
in the blackbird,
and the glistening sheen
of the raven.
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
